episode_0062

*Creak* Having left the Mega Apartments and moved into a new building that even had the smell of fresh paint, I welcomed my first guests.

If you were to ask if I held a housewarming party, that kind of culture had long since vanished anyway. And sadly, there wasn’t a ridiculously slow elevator here that you had to risk your life on every time you rode it, like in the Mega Apartments, so there wasn’t much interaction between neighbors.

For someone with an outsider tendency like me, it was truly an excellent place.

“It’s a neater style than I expected.”

Luna mumbled, looking around the house as if surprised.

Indeed, it was an interior that gave a modern vibe with a lot of white and monochrome, but in this era, it was quite an outdated technique.

You could say only grandfathers would like it.

Now that I think about it, old man Dumbo, who lived two houses down, surprisingly had young tastes.

Somehow, I felt like I’d become older than an actual grandfather, so it felt a little strange.

“Is it strange?”

“No. Usually, workaholics living in the upper city decorate their homes like paranoid patients, claiming to seek peace of mind. Of course, it doesn’t seem to be quite that precise.”

“Damn it, you’re saying it’s strange.”

I put my heart and soul into it, practically strangling the contractor to get it done, and this is the harsh criticism I get?

Yuki and Kana also liked to decorate lavishly, mixing neon and Japanese styles, so their reaction wasn’t particularly positive.

Rather than disliking it, they just didn’t particularly care.

“Wow~ Martina, how have you been?”

“…I require you to maintain a safe distance.”

Or perhaps they were just preoccupied with hugging Martina, rubbing against her, and playing with her.

Since it was a matter of dealing with the Lord World, I thought I wouldn’t need the Little Vampire’s brain for computational assistance, so I safely left Martina at home. The moment I opened the door, she was assaulted by the charge of the white fox and the black fox, and she sent me a piercing look, asking for help, but I subtly avoided her gaze.

They like you so much, just let them have their fun.

‘I’ll curse you.’

‘Where did you learn that?’

I’ll have to cut off the internet.

“More importantly, give me your arm. Let’s wrap a bandage around it.”

“Oh, this?”

Luna pulled my arm and saw the long gash from the Mantis Blade, where the subdermal armor plate was exposed and clotted blood had hardened.

Healing by nanomachine has extremely low regenerative power for missing tissue compared to a healing factor, so if a chunk of flesh is cut off, it naturally takes time.

In fact, the greater role of nanomachines was to enhance physical performance, and I could just go to a safe place for a skin graft, so it wasn’t a big problem.

“It doesn’t hurt anymore; if I leave it, it’ll heal on its own.”

“It’s hard for me to look at it. Besides, the type of chrome inserted internally isn’t good if exposed for too long, so ask Mason to replace it tomorrow.”

“I will.”

The Mantis Blade must have been quite powerful, as a single scratch had stripped off a long section of the armor plate.

If I had been hit two or three more times, I probably would have lost my entire arm.

Using a maintenance tool from who-knows-where, Luna recoated the damaged bulletproof plate with a coating agent, and then covered it with a ring-shaped bandage that could easily bind the wound when tightened, along with disinfection.

It felt a little tight, as if the blood circulation was cut off, but even after rotating my arm a few times, I felt no discomfort.

“Thanks.”

“If you know that, then do well. I’m sticky with sweat, so I should wash up.”

“Oh, the bathroom is over there?”

“I know.”

Luna snorted, and without being guided, naturally found the bathroom.

Though, the house wasn’t that big, so no guidance was really needed.

*Whoosh* Along with the sound of water coming from the bathroom, the subtle scent of sweat from the bandage wrapped around my arm was surprisingly pleasant.

‘That’s a bit perverted, isn’t it?’

I thought that for a moment, but then I wondered, what does it matter if a man is a little perverted?

“You two, stop bothering Martina and go wash up.”

It seemed they had finished biting, chewing, tasting, and enjoying her by then, as a tattered Martina looked at me with resentful eyes, while Yuki and Kana, with a satisfied look, wiped their mouths.

“Okay~ Martina will wash with us, so you can’t come in even if you want to see?”

“Of course, if you suddenly come in, it might be a little unavoidable?”

Leaving behind words that made it impossible to tell if they meant ‘don’t come in’ or ‘come in’, the two dragged Martina away.

Her usually soft face, which seemed to hold no particular thoughts, now looked as if her soul had left her body.

‘Shall we watch a movie?’

Spreading out a bunch of soft blankets on the floor, and then lying down to eat snacks and watch a movie—what a luxury! Isn’t this truly a devilishly delightful home date?

***

The thick, steaming vapor that filled the bathroom due to the hot air, was sucked out into the cold air outside, and instantly, cool, dry, pleasant air enveloped my body.

As a breeze cooled my flushed body, and I walked out from between the enormous clouds of steam, as if there had been a fire, the soft feel of the synthetic polyester blankets covering the entire floor enveloped my bare feet.

Then, three pairs of eyes fixed on me, lingeringly scanned my body, and then, as if to hide their lingering gaze, simultaneously looked up at my face.

Yuki and Kana, who hadn’t brought clothes and were borrowing clothes from my house, creating a loose, baggy vibe; and Luna, whose ample chest meant my clothes didn’t fit, so she had finally brought her own clothes from the store.

The three of them seemed to have been waiting for me, and were lounging around near the sofa.

“Your skin is bright red?”

“I thought you were going to be boiled alive and turn into boiled pork slices.”

“Boiled pork slices?”

Unfortunately, they sold all sorts of awful, food-like items made from substitutes, but they didn’t sell boiled pork slices.

Pure pork, to begin with, was merely a dinner menu item that only the wealthy in the upper city could afford daily.

If something like that were sold in the lower city, they wouldn’t last a week, let alone a month, before going bankrupt.

“It’s nothing special. Just a dish where pork is boiled.”

I waved my hand dismissively, as if it were nothing, and changed into some indoor clothes that were casually lying discarded in a corner.

A somewhat regretful atmosphere lingered, but I steadfastly felt refreshed, and threw myself onto the sofa, only to roll off and fall onto the floor.

“Shall we watch a horror movie special?”

“I like it~ I agree~”

“I heard Chokooshi premiered in Neo-Japan, how about that?”

“Trainer…? Isn’t that pornography?”

“It means ‘perfumery’, Jun.”

Of course, to Kana, who was flirting by saying I could train her however much I wanted if that’s what I desired, I lightly flicked her forehead, and then Yuki scampered to the refrigerator, rolling out cans of chuhai that were packed tight, as if they’d been bought ages ago.

In contrast, Luna was fidgeting uncomfortably, as if something was bothering her.

“Ugh…”

“Luna, what’s wrong? Are you sick?”

“No… It’s nothing. But surely, it doesn’t support an AR (Augmented Reality) projector, does it?”

At Luna’s words, I went to the paid subscription page, and there was the AR support mark, boldly displayed.

“Aighhhh…”

With a face full of despair, as if the world had collapsed, Luna melted limply onto the floor.

“Wow. So it can do this too.”

Kana, as if curious, poked the melting Luna with her finger.

“Would you mind not touching my chest without permission?”

“I’ll think about it.”

Poking, poke-poke, at her chest, which sagged sideways due to gravity, the hand soon began to knead.

Luna recoiled in horror and tried to hit Kana, but as if she had sensed the danger with animal-like instincts, she quickly took a step back, her tail swishing, and ran far away.

“I never knew the great Luna would hate horror movies.”

“It’s not that I hate them, it’s just that I’m not used to them…! Besides, horror movies made in Japan are generally gloomy!”

“That’s national discrimination! Though we do admit it!”

It’s my daily life to do things that make adrenaline explode far more than watching horror movies, so I wondered what the big deal was, but since I had found something to tease her about, I grinned slyly and let out a sinister laugh.

“Why… why are you laughing like that!”

“Just because you’re cute.”

I wondered if she’d be fine with just some mindless, gory B-grade slasher movie, but with this many people, watching a B-grade movie felt a bit wrong.

“Then shall we watch something else?”

“No.”

With a devilish grin, I activated the AR projector.

Advertisements from all sorts of companies surged in like waves, filling the entire 4 minute and 30 second commercial break.

But Luna seemed to feel that this was her last chance to compose herself, as normally she would have raised her middle finger every time an ad appeared, but now she seemed to be praying for the ads not to end.

Luna, who had rolled herself up in a blanket, forming a cocoon.

As if her appearance was amusing, the twins hugged Luna while dangling their legs on the sofa.

“You two seem to have gotten closer than I expected in the meantime?”

“Hmm~ We’re going to be with Jun from now on anyway, so if we don’t get along, it’ll just be uncomfortable, won’t it?”

“So we decided to be friendly.”

Ohohoh- Patting the fox who was giggling as if she had thought of a very wicked and terrifying plan, I looked around at the environment created by the AR projector after the commercials ended.

Instantly, the dark room filled with blankets transformed into a dimly lit tatami room and a Japanese garden, where natural sunlight, hard to feel in Eclipse Point, streamed in, yet it was strangely gloomy.

*Thump* The shishi-odoshi thumped against the rock and then rose again.

“Eek..!”

The blanket cocoon shook violently just as the movie began.

As for the movie’s content, perhaps it was as expected.

As Luna had said, it was a horror movie filled with quite gloomy content, and it contained many metaphorical fetishistic elements, so I could occasionally feel a strange atmosphere flowing.

It’s strange to say for a horror movie, but it made me feel a bit lewd.

‘Even after a century, horror movies are still pretty much the same.’

Thinking something that would provoke a shootout if I said it in front of a fan, I pulled the fox tail next to me to cover my stomach and gently stroked it with my fingers.

Kana, who had offered her tail, also seemed more interested than scared by the movie, as she popped popcorn into her mouth and dangled her legs.

Other than the fact that the female protagonist, a perfumer, searched for a strange scent in her new house and the woman she met had breasts as huge as Luna’s, I didn’t really remember the plot well.

‘Why on earth did they cast a ghost with such huge boobs? Was this pornography?’

*Clench* With movements that subtly emphasized eroticism, I recalled the first time Luna had offered her chest, and my lower half involuntarily swelled.

Perhaps sensing that, Kana, who had been munching on popcorn, flinched.

“Ah… Jun, no matter what, the tail is a bit…”

“…I got an erection, but it’s a misunderstanding.”